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Things is, a decent server room temperature is around 23 degree Celsius - which should be comfortable enough... but many configurations have inadequate cooling which means they're cooling the room to freezing just to get a decent temperature inside the racks instead :/
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Oskar DuvebornMay 1 '09 at 15:26

1

In my experience, anything left in a data center that won't actively trip an alarm when removed, will be gone within a year. Some stuff will be accidentally borrowed and some maliciously stolen, but gone none the less.
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jj33Mar 2 '10 at 17:30

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+1 :( However, in this case, our cage is locked tight, and I don't think anyone's going to do some ninja stuff to steal my tools.
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Bill WeissMar 2 '10 at 17:47

a collection of writing utensils including sharpies and wax pencils to write on racks

a collection of screw driver heads - flat, phillips, hex, torx(sp?), and some other specialty ones

spare heavy-duty power extension cords and a three-plug expander

a decent digital mutilmeter

duct tape

I think I have more, but that's the basics. Everything on that list addresses a specific need I've had in my career. The laptop bag is heavy but well worth the bulk in saved trouble. The tool bag I'm rather proud of, it's not big (it's one of those "big mouth" bags that opens like a doctor's black bag), maybe 18 inches long and 12 wide. I spent a great deal of time customizing the contents to maximize the value for the volume. For instance, I threw away the bulky plastic container the socket kit came in; I built a much smaller organizer for it. Same with the screw heads - I built a cloth with elastic on it that the heads slide into. It's also modular - all the screw drivers are in a large pencil case, so I can find them easily and, if I know I will only need them, I can just grab them out of my car and carry them into the DC instead of the whole tool bag.

A workspace with enough room to work comfortably on a broken 19" server, with screen, keyboard, mouse. Separate from the racks.

An old PC. Optimally with controllers and slots to fit every piece of hardware you may have to analyze. Mine speaks SCSI wide & narrow, IDE, SATA, PCI, USB, Firewire 400. Keep a small stash of old computers, if you can. They will come and ask if you can rescue the data from this 5.25" disk one day.

A notebook on the side. The rescue PC has no internet connection, to make sure it cant be infected.

A big enough disk to put data on that you may have to rescue.

Room for spare parts and cables. Room for a museum of old stuff you might need for old systems.

Cart. In case you have heavy servers, a lift of some sort.

A selection of tools you know you will need. You can keep this small, if you have a complete set elsewhere.

Telephone with outside access, if your mobile doesnt allow that.

Pen and Paper.

Spare parts for your most important servers. If you have several identical machines, keep one spare. It is the organ donor. It may be used for testing new setups, but be prepared to rip it apart.

A few switches, network converters, cables of all kinds.

Generally make the server room your fortress of solitude, where you can retreat when the brown stuff hits the rotating thing. Nothing like coming out smiling after one hour of hacking, and the broken server is back up, with all data.

Amen to point #1. As someone who has to regularly work for a couple of days at a stretch in customer server rooms the one thing that I find that is most frequently overlooked is a decent work surface. Doesn't have to be a full desk but as you say, big enough to open up a broken 19" server and take a screen, keyboard and mouse.
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HelvickJan 12 '10 at 21:37

5

Just to add: A Chair. Really, sitting on the floor or standing for 2 hours just because some update/backup/rescue operation takes time sucks and may not be healthy.
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Michael StumFeb 19 '10 at 18:29

For when it's in awkward places, I've been known to use a digital camera. (and then zoom in on the display, if necessary) It also keeps me from needing to copy down serial numbers while wedging my head into racks.
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Joe H.Mar 2 '10 at 19:23

Aside from tools I would highly recomend a small first aid kit, and some nonmessy snack foods that keep in storage well. Being able to put a bandage on a paper cut or other small nick on the spot is nice insted on having to hunt down someone from security just for a small bandage. The snacks are good for when it has been two hours too long and you are still more or less stuck in the computer room.

Forget papercut! Some of the worst cuts I've ever had have been from moving and cataloging old hardware, those steel cases can cut like a knife under the right(wrong?) circumstances. I used a paper towel and duck tape at the time, but a first aid kit would have been much appreciated.
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C. RossFeb 11 '10 at 18:06

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Food != Raised Floor If you are in the Datacenter Suite with the equipment say no to food.
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JamesBarnettNov 28 '11 at 3:32

Well let's say hopefully not, but I've been in a situation or two where I wish I had one. It's useful if you a) need to go feeding cables, or b) are unfortunate enough to work for someone who doesn't keep their server room clean. The latter, of course, may very well be the reason things broke in the first place.
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lc.May 1 '09 at 14:26

How about ear plugs/ear protection. With all the fans running in your typical server room, the noise level is probably above what is considered "safe levels" by your typical ETLA government agency (hence the ear protection).

I bet you could even make a case for eye protection as well.

A second person/working alone policy. Lots of stuff can happen when you least expect it. You get pinned by a piece of equipment. You get electrocuted. Heck, something as simple as you get locked in. If you have trusted backup who knows when you are starting/stopping work and when you are supposed to check in, they can come to the rescue. Otherwise, you could be waiting a long time, or dead.

Kudos on the ear protection. When we put in our first blade-rack the noise in the DC went up. Plus it had an /evil/ harmonic. If I'm going to be in there for more than 5 minutes, I wear my shooting muffs.
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sysadmin1138♦May 20 '09 at 20:28

I do not wish to repeat some of the good answers here, so I'll put in more stuff I did not see get mentioned:

Physiological

foldable stool if you don't like sitting on the floor.

Plastic bag for trash if brining in food.

muesli bars; fast quick consumption with minimal garbage.

more secure containers like camel pak for water; don't give chance to spill liquids like an open cup of coffee.

Equipment

laptop power adapter, or extra battery if no available socket for external devices.

Ethernet cable if laptop can be plugged into switch patch panel for access or diagnostic sniffing.

GSM modem for laptop if there is no wireless network. I don't know how many times that saved our project as I had to VPN back to office network, access version control respository, recompile code and run some tests, then deploy the fresh new build onto servers.

A sweatshirt/hoodie. It's cold in there! It's hard to have a steady hand if you're shivering. If you're not cold, take the hoodie off.

A laptop, of course. Make sure you have all the utilities and documentation you will need pre-installed.

USB and PS/2 keyboard and mouse if you don't keep spares in your server room. We keep spares there, and all of our machines take USB peripherals, so that makes things easier.

A monitor (LCD is much easier to carry) if you don't keep a spare with the servers. Again, better to have a spare already in the room.

lc mentioned multiple USB sticks, and I second that. You might consider an external USB hard drive if you have to move a lot of data.

Everyone mentioned a cell phone already and I have to agree. You never know when you have to call for help or have someone on the outside run a test.

Anti-static wriststrap if you're going to open up a server. Electro-static discharge (ESD) can destroy components even if you didn't see/feel/hear the spark. It can also break things in subtle ways that are extremely hard to diagnose later.

Camera (cell phone cam usually good enough). Recording labels, cable routings, server contents, etc is much easier if you can take a picture. Also good for recording water damage, etc.

Pen and paper are obviously useful.

Masking tape. It peels off more cleanly than duct tape, it's cheaper, and can be used both for labels and for binding errant cables. It's also easier to tear. You can use it to post warnings and reminders as well. You can even use it to keep little screws attached to the case they belong to.

Screw driver set (lc and others mentioned this). You will likely need the full range of Phillips (+) and slotted (-) screwdriver sizes. Always use the largest that fits comfortably in the screw, so you don't strip the head. Socket drivers are also handy, and less likely to strip the screw.

Penlight (small flashlight/"torch") to see clearly in those tight spaces. Works well with the camera.

Small magnet on a stick/tweezers to grab dropped screws from tight spaces. BE CAREFUL WITH THESE! Most magnets are too weak to affect a sealed hard drive, but don't wave one willy-nilly inside a running server. Tweezers are usually uninsulated metal, and pointy metal objects should not be inserted into runinng servers either. But it's much nicer than having to hold an open server upside-down and shake it to get little screws out.

Needle-nose pliers. Comes on most multitools. You never know when you need them.

EDIT:
- Canned air! Servers collect dust quickly, and it can clog heatsinks and fans. It's also really gross. If you have to go into a server, blow the dust out of there.

Telephones as mentioned above, but with a long enough cord to take the handset to any cabinet. And yes, corded phones -- there's likely to be enough signal on whatever frequency you choose for there to be a problem with cordless.

While I'm on the subject, even if the site uses VoIP phones, you need a non-VoIP, non-PBX, direct line to handle the instances where the VoIP or PBX equipment is down.

I always use velcro ties for long-term binding as well, so much easier when the time comes to un-bind a run for whatever reason ^^
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Oskar DuvebornJan 13 '10 at 0:35

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@Oskar - one reason to use the zip ties is so that others don't unbind the run just because they came up with a reason. It creates a barrier to change - both for good and for ill. All in all, 6/half dozen, IMHO.
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pcapademicJan 13 '10 at 9:58

better than just keeping your Dell DVDs, keep a latest-drivers archive on a handy network share. don't delete old driver versions, since you never know what new drivers might break (or not work with the ancient OS you're installing). having a DVD is handy, but not as handy as having any drivers you need ready to drop onto a thumbdrive, optical disc, or whatever.
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quack quixoteJan 12 '10 at 22:03

I've seen some people mention zip ties, and while they are nice looking, I don't like them so much anymore anymore. I've come to prefer twist ties. They're easy to remove (don't require a tool to do so) and they are also easy to modify (if you need to add additional cables to the bundle). I picked up a spool of it from the gardening section of menards that comes with a cutter... that's similar to this...

Critically important - water (maybe gatorade). It's a very dehydrating environment. Temperature varies greatly. Layered clothing, you may stand in a hot or cold area of high or low airflow. Keep your water in a proper container, both for real safety and to create the impression that you are behaving carefully (either to set a good example, or in case you are caught, depending on your position).

If you expect to spend extended periods in a server room, get earphones that act as earplugs. One headache from 18 hours in a server room makes them worth the money. Otherwise, earplugs if you're expecting an extended stay. Most data centers are under the OSHA requirement for ear protection, but demand earplugs anyway - take a sound reading in the worst spot and remind that the OSHA regs were meant for 8 hours, and you could spend far longer.

Hardware and tools that you expect to need, of course - this goes for any job. This includes cellphones and other communication devices as needed. I've seen more than one server room in which cellphones didn't work.

A second person. A server room is a work site that can experience accidents like any other. I don't often hear of fatal accidents in server rooms. But I have witnessed several incidents that could have been fatal if there were no one else around. I've seen (or been within earshot of) plenty of incidents where no one was injured and a machine was destroyed, just due to luck.

A camera. I disagree that a cell phone camera is good enough - useless in my experience. A camera is important for data center work, but you need to take a picture of a machine that's clear enough to read serial numbers, hostname stickers, model numbers, etc in one shot. A cellphone camera usually can't take a picture of a serial number sticker - to get it in focus, you need to move so far back you don't have enough resolution to read it. Take a picture of cables before doing work, of unexpected or surprising fault lights. Take a picture of cables after doing work, so you can check the picture before walking back to the data center.

The only thing that should be stored in the server room is servers. Everything else should be stored nearby, but removed from the server room when not needed.

To add a bit to my above statement. Colo's and Server rooms are two different animals. With colos you generally have your cage space and that is it - would be nice if they provided lockers for client use but they generally don't.

Some have server rooms that aren't conveniently located near additional secured storage space. I'd rather have equipment safely stored in a cabinet in the server room itself than trekking across a building because I forgot something I'd never use outside the room...
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ceejayozJan 12 '10 at 21:17

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Unfortunately, my servers are in a colo facility an hour from the office. Some things I just don't want to haul back and forth. Plus, I leave for there from different places: the office, my house, bars (when I'm really unlucky), etc. Otherwise, I'd be with you.
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Bill WeissJan 12 '10 at 21:36

1

If you have space in your rack, I wouldn't be surprised if some company offers 19" lockable drawers...
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Michael StumFeb 26 '10 at 5:31

Quality tools. Cheap tools like screwdrivers that the tips shear off when you're trying to remove that overtightened screw can ruin your day, especially if you're at the colo in a downtown urban centre at 3am, and there is nowhere within a hour drive (or commute) to get a replacement. They don't have to be top of the line machinist tools, but decent quality, not a bigbox / department store set bought on sale for $4.99. Wiha, Wera, Snap-On, and Klein Tools are recommended brands.

And the right tools, that actually fit. Needing to open a case where the screws have been "stripped" due to screwdriver slippage, or using the wrong screwdriver is an act of unnecessary frustration.